How to Teach Yourself to Study Effectively

Unfortunately, some high school and college students aren't taught how to study. Very few are taught how to pick out the most important details. Those who take courses on studying are taught a specific method or style. The problem is that there is no one right way to study, it is different for everybody and the strategies that most people use cause them to burn out and retain less.Read this article, and learn to develop a studying strategy that works best for you.

Things You'll Need

• Material for studying

Instructions

How to Teach Yourself to Study Effectively

1. Read: Most people try to sit down and read a whole chapter, a section, and take notes on a separate piece of paper, or in a computer document. But often do you get burned out after only 10 pages of reading? It is very common. Here is what to do to prevent that: When starting a new class, set a minimum goal of how many pages you know you can read in a day, even if it is only two or three. Every day, read this many pages of textbook material.

2. Be consistent. Most people don't study until the week of the exam. But, in college, exams are typically scheduled in standard intervals, resulting in five classes having five exams in a span of seven days or less including, at times, two on one day! Rather than cram the night before, read a small amount every day. Once you comfortably achieve your goal of the minimum number of pages, after a few days or a week, try adding only one or two more pages. Starting small, and working your way up, makes it much less burdensome.

3. Continue to add pages to your reading time until you get to a point that is most comfortable. Not everybody is going to want to read 30 pages at a time, but you'll find that you'll be ready and able to read a significant amount every day if you don't try to tackle the task all at once.

4. Use the same principle when you taking notes from your textbook. Taking notes can be a very daunting task. There are many people who copy out of the book nearly word for word, wasting hours of potential party time. Write your notes out as you normally would. If the task is taking too long, or you are writing too much, try reducing the volume of notes you take by a small fraction. You'll figure out at what is most effective for you.If the book material overlaps in lecture, it is very important. About 50 percent of material from the textbook and 50 percent of lecture will end up on the exam. This is a good estimate to begin with, but adjust this based on what your teacher says, and how the first exam fairs.

Tips & Warnings

• The key is studying the material consistently over time. You can adjust to the amount of reading and note taking that optimizes your education very easily, and in a short amount of time.

• Remember, too much studying makes you remember less of the material; your brain can only process so much. So read until you feel like stopping.

• Also, socialize, eat well, and get a healthy amount of sleep. The happier and healthier you are, the better you will do in school.